Page 85 of Reaper Said Mine

I breathe once through my nose, tasting his sudden fear and hating the reason for it. “And Zune?”

“Nothing official from Helios,” Krell says. “Unofficially, two Combine commercial representatives have requested early departure clearance.”

“No,” I say.

Vakka’s eyes brighten. “No?”

“No departure until the relay needle investigation concludes.”

“That will upset them.”

“I hope so.”

Krell shifts his weight. “Lord, if we hold merchant craft too long, Zune may claim unlawful detention under neutral trade protocols.”

“Then he can file a complaint with whatever court is brave enough to deliver it.”

Skahar lifts his cane slightly. “Better. Make the delay procedural. Safety inspection. Emergency calibration fault in berth controls. Nothing openly punitive. If Zune wants to protest, force him to argue against station safety.”

I hate when he is right while correcting me.

“Do that,” I tell Vakka. “Full safety recalibration on all Combine-associated departures. Slow, meticulous, irritatingly lawful.”

Vakka grins. “My favorite kind of lawful.”

Krell waits, still tense.

“What else?” I ask.

He hesitates. “The human journalist is in the lower market.”

Everything in me changes direction.

Skahar exhales very softly through his nose. Vakka suddenly finds the relay report fascinating.

I keep my voice controlled. “Why?”

Krell looks as if he has been asked to explain weather. “She said she wanted breakfast.”

“She has food in her assigned suite.”

“She said, and I quote, ‘I did not come to the Badlands to eat diplomatic paste from a wall dispenser while history commits crimes downstairs.’”

Vakka’s laugh cracks through the annex.

Skahar closes his eye and smiles like the old bastard has just been given a holy vision. “Yes. That sounds like her.”

“She went with two guards?” I ask.

Krell’s silence tells me the answer before his mouth does.

I stand.

Vakka clears her throat. “Before you storm through the market like an incoming hull breach, you should know that she refused the guards.”

“She refused.”

“She told them, according to the report, that if they followed close enough to scare sources away, she would do a live segment on Reaper security theater and title it ‘The Warlord’s Babysitters.’”